I don't realize what's happening until it's too late.
One moment, I'm staring into the pool, its surface as still as glass, barely rippling even though the wind in the chamber has turned sharp and restless and the next, it pulls me under. But not with water. Not with touch.
With memory.
A powerful, aching kind of memory that drags me in like a wave I never saw coming.
My body doesn't move.
But my soul?
It falls.
When my eyes open, I'm not me anymore.
I'm her. Or maybe just a shadow standing on the edge of something sacred and doomed.
The air is thick with golden light. Warm. So different from the castle I've grown used to, the cold stone halls, the muted colors, the feeling that even the walls are grieving.
This place is still alive.
The scent of lilacs is in the air. Music, faint and beautiful, spills from a far corner like someone's humming an old lullaby.
And then I see them.
Kael and Lira.
Gods. They were beautiful together.
He isn't the man I know now. His face is lighter, younger. Not in years, no, Kael doesn't age like most men, but in burden. The shadows haven't reached him yet. His eyes still carry the sun. And when he smiles when he looks at her-it 's like watching someone believe in something pure for the very first time.
And she…
Lira glows.
She walks barefoot across the marble floor, her white dress fluttering like a whispered promise. Her laughter echoes, a sound too delicate for this world, like it belongs in a dream someone once had of heaven.
She runs to him. And he catches her. Like it's the most natural thing in the world.
"Did you sneak out again?" Kael asks, brushing a curl from her face.
"I couldn't sleep," she whispers, curling into his chest. "I didn't want to be alone."
Kael exhales, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. "You're never alone. Not while I'm breathing."
And for a moment, the world holds its breath with them.
But the thing about beautiful moments?
They're almost always preludes to ruin.
The doors open with a groan.
Four figures enter. Cloaked in darkness, hoods shadowing their faces. Magic leaks from them visible, toxic, wrong. The air bends around them. The light recoils.
Kael turns to face them, jaw tight, his hand instinctively going to the hilt of a sword that isn't there.
"You said we had more time," he says.
One of the magicians steps forward. His voice is ancient, slow, like a blade being dragged across stone. "The magic is consuming her faster than predicted. If we wait, she will be lost."
"She isn't lost," Kael growls. "She's right here."
"We have a way," the mage continues. "A binding spell. It will tether the magic to another source. It will preserve her soul."
Lira steps behind Kael. "What do you mean, another source?"
"The one who loves her most."
Her breath catches.
Kael doesn't even flinch.
He already knows.
He volunteered.
"No." Lira's voice is trembling now. "Kael, no. You can't."
"You'll die," he says, turning to her. "And I'll lose everything."
"If you do this," she whispers, "you'll curse yourself."
"I don't care."
The mages begin the chant.
Runes ignite in red, crawling across the marble like veins of molten lava. The scroll is lifted. The crown is revealed glass and bone, delicate yet savage.
Lira backs away, eyes wide. "Please. Don't do this. Let me go, Kael."
"I can't!" he shouts, louder than I've ever heard him. His voice cracks like thunder. "You are my beginning and end. I won't let you go."
He pulls her into him.
And she weeps.
Even now, she shines. Even now, her love for him wraps around her like a prayer.
The crown lowers onto her head.
And she screams.
Her body jerks violently. Magic pours into her, around her, through her. The room goes dark at the edges. Paintings fall from the walls. The chandelier shatters above.
Kael clutches her tighter. "Hold on. Please, Lira, hold on."
She opens her eyes.
They're no longer hers.
Black.
Endless.
Wrong.
"Kael," she chokes out. "It's eating me."
He sobs, clutching her face. "Fight it. Please."
But her hands rise, twitching, trembling. Her voice splits.
"They're using me."
Her skin glows, splitting in places, like she's being torn from the inside.
"They bound the curse," she whispers. "To you. Through me."
He pulls her back to his chest. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."
"It hurts," she breathes, and the light inside her flickers. "I love you."
"I love you more."
And then—
She shatters.
Not her body.
Her soul.
It cracks. And Kael screams.
Raw. Broken.
And I feel it all.
The curse that slams into him. That carves itself into his blood, his bones, his mind. He becomes the vessel. The prison. The graveyard of magic and grief.
The mages vanish.
The light dies.
And Kael?
Kael is left kneeling in the wreckage, holding a girl made of light and shadow, with no one left to save.
I shoot up, gasping.
The pool is still. The air around me is thick and electric.
My chest aches. My hands tremble. And my heart... my heart feels like it's carrying a weight that doesn't belong to me.
Kael doesn't speak.
He stands at the edge of the memory chamber, watching.
Waiting.
"I saw it," I whisper, voice shaking. "All of it."
He didn't ask what I mean.
He already knows.
He turns away, as if ashamed. But I can't let him hide anymore.
"You were trying to save her."
"I failed."
"No." I rise to my feet, weak and breathless but certain. "You did what anyone would've done for someone they loved. You gave everything."
"And now I'm cursed for it."
"No," I say again. "You're grieving. You never got to stop."
He looks at me then, really looks. And something in his eyes… breaks.
"I don't know how to let her go."
"don't," I whisper. "Just don't let her be the only part of your story."
His breath catches.
The chamber is silent.
But I feel something shift.
A beginning.
Or maybe…
The end of the end.